Title: An Aside
Author: A.j.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Iron Man movie. This is a wee bit down the road.

Summary: Every now and then, she hits him on the head. Just when he needs it.

"You're an idiot. You know that, right?"

Tony rolled his eyes and winced as she pulled another icepack - rather roughly, he felt - off of his arm. Without bothering to loosen the tape. "I'm a genius. You know that."

"Right." Pepper pulled off another ice pack, ignoring his yelp. "Genius."

He rubbed the raw skin of his shoulder and sent her a glare. "That sounds sarcastic there, Potts. You know, you didn't used to be this angry. Do I have to look into management classes?"

"You didn't used-" Pepper stopped, took a breath and went back to fishing for something in the first aide kit. "Okay, no, you used to be exactly this stupid, but back then, you'd just go do something stupid and moderately dangerous."

He nodded. "True. But less fulfilling. And heroic."

That earned him a slap to the back of the head.

"Ow, dammit! Seriously, Pepper, what the hell is wrong with you tonight?" He turned the chair so that he could see her, wounded expression firmly in place. Not that he minded a little slap and tickle, but this definitely seemed like there wouldn't be any 'tickle' at the end of it.

What he found was not... something he really knew how to deal with.

Pepper was crying. Okay, there was one tear and she was red enough that she looked like she would probably explode at any moment. She looked furious. And really hot.

"You are... ARG." She threw down the ice pack she still had in her hand and, honest to god, stomped her foot. He hadn't known people actually did that outside of bad romantic comedies. "You're a complete asshole!"

"Um." He blinked.

"You go out there in that damn suit, risking your life and getting shot at and then come back here with bruises and cuts that need stitches and you make jokes like it's nothing. It's not nothing, Tony! It's your life!"

She stopped, shaking her hands in front of herself, flapping them lightly. He was too stunned to do anything other than wait. When she finally looked up, her eyes were wet.

He didn't know what to do. At all. Crying women were something he had next to no experience with outside a few very fuzzy memories of his mother.

"I-" He shook his head, completely bereft of anything to say.

"Just." Pepper took a few deep breaths and crossed her arms over her chest. She stared down at the shiny concrete floor of the garage. "This scares me, Tony. Every single time. And I can't do this if you're just going to make a joke about it. Your life is not a joke."

"Pepper..." And then instinct kicked in. It surprised him as much as her when his hand was suddenly on her shoulder. "You're right."

She blinked and raised her face to look at him. Blinked again. Apparently liked what she saw there. "I know."

"It's not a joke." Her shoulder was shaking, just a little, under his hand, and in that moment he can see another person whispering other words. "I'm not wasting my life, Pepper."

Her face softens, just a little and she raises a hand to cover his. "I don't think that, Tony. It's just. Your life is important too."

The moment stretches and holds, but comes to an end with a loud resounding crash from across the garage. They both jump and look to see the newly refurbished fire safety robot hovering over one of the many dolly's littered through out the workshop. Tony swears it shoots them a guilty look before skirting the ojbect and heading off in its original direction.

"City college?" Pepper's voice is wry and the little knot of fear that had taken up residence in his chest loosened.

"Oh, yeah," he said and smiled. Just a little.

-fin-